Some TV Stations Got Fined Because of a Gerard Butler Movie

Three companies have been hit with fines from the Federal Communications Commission after airing a commercial for Olympus Has Fallen last spring.

Three companies have been hit with fines from the Federal Communications Commission after airing a commercial for Olympus Has Fallen last spring. The FCC claims that the 30-second spot improperly used tones from the Emergency Alert System.

On Monday, Viacom, NBCUniversal, and ESPN were slapped with fines totaling about $1.93 million dollars after multiple complaints were filed in March about how the blaring tones throughout the ad were confusing people.

As the FCC put it:

Frivolous, casual, or other uses of EAS Tones for reasons other than their defined purpose can desensitize viewers to the tones and thereby undermine the effectiveness of the system in the event of an actual emergency.

The ad was supplied by FilmDistrict and their media agency, Horizon Media. The MPAA and other groups quickly asked networks to stop airing the spot afterward, and they did. All three companies said that they have altered their review procedures to account for EAS tones.

And so ends the embarrassing, hopefully final chapter of Olympus Has Fallen—the far worse of last summer’s two “White House under siege” films. (You should watch White House Down. It’s fun!)